


Poster Child

by mander3_swish



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-26
Updated: 2012-04-26
Packaged: 2017-11-04 09:14:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/392199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mander3_swish/pseuds/mander3_swish
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gus had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided to run for Student Council President</p>
            </blockquote>





	Poster Child

**Author's Note:**

> Evil!Kinney Girls Prompt: "Politics can be wild & sexy too"   
> Written for 7wildwaysup's birthday. She likes politics, so I hope you can enjoy Gus’ little adventure into the shark infested waters too!

Gus had no idea what he was getting himself into when he decided to run for Student Council President in his last year of high school. He was sort of popular and thought he could have a lot of fun coming up with fun ideas to do at the school. He never thought his campaign would actually have to stand for something, but when his extended family found out (and he means ALL of them) his head was spinning with all of the helpful and not-so helpful advice. 

Between Ma and Dad’s ingenious ideas and copy, along with some epic posters he designed with Mom and Justin’s help, Gus quickly developed a campaign based on the issues important to the students at Danforth Collegiate: anti-bullying, better food in the cafeteria, and after-grad.

Having a solid platform and support from all his key classmates had Gus feeling quite confident so he was quite stunned by the footage that Cherry -his opponent for president- had dug up. He and his... Nico... were always careful. This was mostly because he wasn’t ready to tell his family...everything...only to be handed over to the PFLAG machine that was Grandma Deb. Just because he still lived in Toronto didn’t mean he wouldn’t somehow end up as the new poster child for young gay love in Pittsburgh.

But back to the matter at hand. Gus was fucked, and “not in a positive, life-affirming way” like his dad always said. The grainy footage showed him pressed up against the wall in the locker room (okay, so they weren’t that careful), his arms thrown around Nico’s neck, each frantically exploring the others’ mouth, and Nico’s right hand obscured within the grainy blackness, but it was pretty obvious that it was down the front of Gus’ jeans. It was relatively harmless when compared to some of the exhibitions he’d heard (via eavesdropping when visiting Pittsburgh) about his dad and Justin partaking in at various public places around town. Why should one minor indiscretion ruin his presidential bid and potentially his college applications?

He was lucky that Cherry came to him first in an attempt to blackmail him into dropping out of the race, or else she’d share the scandalous video during the debate assembly the very next afternoon. He had until then to make a decision. 

He couldn’t go to Ma for advice on this because she’d probably end up getting the principal involved. Plus, any solution she might have would end up being too above-board and legal.

Justin might have good advice and ideas, but Gus had heard that he tended to get a little hot-headed in the wake of bullying.

His only real option was his dad, even though Gus thought he might be disappointed that he had a boyfriend at such a young age... missed opportunities and all that. But the mighty had changed his opinions about boyfriends, in general, over the years it seemed. Plus, Brian would prefer not to think of his son out and about being as promiscuous as he was at that age. 

Talking on Skype that night, together they hatched a plan that just might work out and have Gus claim a deserved victory. 

_____________

Gus dejectedly walked up to Cherry before the debate, ready to tell her what he’d decided. “Okay fine. You have me by the balls. Can I just go up there and let everyone know what my decision is?”

Cherry had a huge smile on her face and was rubbing her hands together, rather evilly. “Yeah, sure. Go ahead. I’m glad you decided to make the right choice, Gus.” 

Gus went up to the podium, cleared his throat, and began. “Good afternoon fellow students and teachers. My opponent here has a little AV project she put together to try to convince me to drop out of the race. However, I’m here to tell you I will not be bullied or shamed into changing who I am and what I stand for.

“On this video she is prepared to show you shortly depicts myself and...” he quickly gestured to Nico to come up and join him, “my boyfriend, Nico, in a rather passionate embrace.” He pulled Nico into kiss, chaste for them, but gasps were heard throughout the gym. He hoped this display would remove any power that the video might have held.

Breaking the kiss and giving Nico a wry little smile, Gus returned the mic and continued. “How many of can say that you have not kissed your significant other on campus? Why should we be any different, be any less free to show our affection for one another? Heck, we thought we were alone in the locker room, but Cherry here, or one of you out there, decided to spy on us. And aren’t all electronic devices like cell phones and cameras in the locker room against school policy? Whereas, PDAs, while frowned upon, are NOT strictly forbidden?” This sent a wave of murmurs across the crowd. With this, Gus knew he not only had re-secured his spot in the race, but Cherry might be forced to drop out.

“Let’s not allow all of these distractions pull us away from the matter at hand.” He turned to Cherry and said, “Are you going to come up here and get this debate started or are you going to continue to try to destroy your reputation in an attempt to destroy mine?”  
Cherry’s head was bowed dejectedly throughout Gus’ speech, but looked him in the eye when he spoke to her again. Cherry responded to Gus’ challenge with: “You don’t want me to quit?”

“What would be the fun in winning by default? I want to win because of the support from the student body and not from your idiocy.”

_____________

In the end, Gus Peterson-Marcus (Taylor-Kinney) did win the Student Council President election by a landslide. 

Everyone was happy for him, and it seemed like the congratulatory hugs and celebrations were never ending.

The only sour note to the whole thing were the inevitable smacks to the back of his head from several ‘loved’ ones during his visit to the Pitts at Thanksgiving. They couldn’t help but chastise him from keeping his boyfriend a secret for so long!


End file.
